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Amazon.com: Though often and unfairly dismissed as a Quantum Leap clone, the Fox TV series Sliders earned a substantial fan base thanks to its intriguing central premise--the existence of multiple alternate realities--and impressive special effects, both of which get a fine showcase in this six-disc DVD set. Jerry O'Connell leads the appealing cast as a college student who accidentally discovers a portal into alternate dimensions; with the help of his professor (Lord of the Rings' John Rhys-Davies), a spunky Girl Friday (Sabrina Lloyd), and a soul crooner (Cleavant Derricks), O'Connell encounters a host of strange parallel Earths, including a British-ruled United States and one where dinosaurs roam a national park. All nine episodes of the 1995 debut season and the 12-episode second season from '96, as well as the pilot from '95, are included in the aesthetically impressive set; extras, however, are limited to commentary by creators Tracy Torme and Robert K. Weiss on the pilot episode, and a making-of featurette with O'Connell and Derricks. --Paul Gaita
Customer Reviews:
- One of my favorite shows. : One of the better ideas to come out of Fox in the 1990s and the first season is excellent from the first pilot episode which is more like a 90 minute movie to the last episode "Luck of the Draw"
My favorite out of this bunch is probably "Last Days" where the earth is due to be hit by an asteroid in 56 hours. Unfortunately the next Slide window isn't for 72 hours.
The show was then inexpiably canned as tends to happen a lot with Fox releases.
It was resurrected for a second season almost a year later and in that respect it beat the odds but something was missing. The second season episodes were great fun as evidenced by episodes such as "The Good the Bad and the Wealthy" "Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome" and" Into the majestic" but something felt incredibly restrained. This was because Fox in agreeing to bring the show back wanted more control over the creative process.
Overall-Great first season and the second season is great as long as you ignore the episode "Invasion" and I hate invasion because it set us up for the train wreck that was season 4.
- Entertaining and fun. Great chemistry between the actors!: The short first season of Sliders (10 episodes) was quite good! Just the right amount of humor mixed with interesting stories. But, beginning with season two, the series started to SLIDE in the wrong direction. Character development was placed secondary to repetitive plots. This trend continued in season three, four, and five.
Script problems aside, Sliders always remained an entertaining series, mainly because of the natural chemistry between the actors. In the end, a poor decision to make drastic changes to the cast finally destroyed all remaining integrity.
As of this writing the price of the first and second season combo box makes this a great bargain! Even season three is well worth the asking price! However, season FOUR has a list price of $59.99! You've got to be kidding!
[SPOILERS AHEAD]
Don't read the next paragraph if you don't want cast changes revealed!
John Rhys-Davies (Professor Arturo) was essential to the cast. What a truly great actor and a vital character to this series. His removal from the series was the beginning of the end. Professor Arturo was written out of the series in a very heavy handed and uncaring way.
Sabrina Lloyd (Wade Welles) certainly made the right decision to not continue on with the series. Her character was also written out of the show in an uncaring way.
I won't even touch on the horrible cast changes by Season five. The series barely resembled season one at this point. A shame, considering the great potential this series had, early on.
JM - Sliders: I watched this show when I was pregnant with my son. He's old enough now to enjoy it with me so I purchased the first two seasons and he loves them just as much as I do. This really was a fun show.
- Great show!: This was a great show and paved the way for many of the sci-fi shows that are on now. Unfortunately, seasons 4-5 were not produced on DVD, but 1-3 were. This is a great show, taking you from world to world, adventure to adventure. Highly recommended...
- No frills, just what you want: I'm a Sci-Fi fan, and I think that anyone else who is has seen an episode of the Sliders TV series and probably enjoyed the show (when it was on Fox) for at least a while anyway. So I'm not going to describe the great plot of the TV series, nor rate each and every episode of seasons one and two with a synopsis of each. If you are looking at buying this product, you probably already know all about the series and how good it was. I will say this, Sliders was a far better series than Quantum Leap (with 2% actual sci-fi content), which it was accused of being a copy of.
Seasons one and two were short, and had most of the best episodes, in my opinion. Combining them to one set made a lot of sense. This set as sold has no frills. You get both seasons one and two and little else. There is no color insert or picture booklet or episode list. There is not much even on the box itself. But...
The quality of the video and sound are good. The packaging, however, is rather non-functional. I have transferred the six discs to slim line jewel cases and took out the slotted foam insert that the unprotected discs were originally inserted into. It looked cool, I guess, to have the discs cascading down the transparent side of the box, but I go for functionality over asthetics. The function of the case is mainly to protect the DVDs. So I modified it to my liking.
But don't let this stop you from getting this set! It is a great value when compared to other TV series' boxed sets. And the content is of course what you are after. I have enjoyed watching it and this 6-DVD set is a great addition to any Sci-Fi fan's personal collection.
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